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SAM Coupé

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The SAM Coupé was an 8-bit British personal computer that was first released in late 1989. It was an evolved clone of the Sinclair Spectrum computer, originally manufactured by Miles Gordon Technology (MGT).


The SAM Coupé bootup screen

The machine was based around a Z80B processor clocked at 6MHz, and contained an ASIC that was compatible with the Spectrum's ULA. The basic model had 256KB of RAM, (upgradable to 512KB and later 4.5MB), and used tapes for storage. It had 4 graphical modes - including a Spectrum-compatible mode, a 512x192x4 mode, and a 256x192x16 mode. Unfortunately the machine was underpowered and simply couldn't blit the screen around fast enough for high-colour scrolling games.

MGT went into recievership in June 1990, and the assets were mainly bought by a new company founded by Miles and Gordon called Sam Computers Ltd. The price of the SAM with disk drive was brought down to under 200 pounds and new games and hardware was released. SamCo survived until 1992, and the remaining assets then were purchased by West Coast Computers.

Several famous games got ported to the Sam, notably Prince of Persia, and Lemmings.

External links:

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